Thursday, December 15, 2011

The Big Burns Supper

Interesting that this collection of events commemorating, supposedly, our National Poet has no input from any contemporary writers in Dumfries and Galloway. I suppose we shouldn't be surprised at this. Burns Suppers have always been the preserve of people who imagine a love of literature when their real interest is in perpetuating myth, or a particular view of history, or a sentimentalised idea of what it means to be Scottish once a year, or in this case, trying to make some money and attract some visitors. Writers just write though, don't they? Other people do the gimmicks.

Hmmm bit jaundiced that, now I read it in the cold light of a snowy Friday morning. Nothing wrong with different ways of celebrating Burns who was a great and courageous writer, after all. And nothing wrong with a bit of entrepreunerial ambition. Nevertheless poor Rabbie always provides a carcass to feed on, doesn't he?And if the annual Burns hooh-hah proves anything he proves that we have a long and great tradition of poetry in Scotland. And that poets are still ignored, as they were then.

"once a year within a phantom nationthey shrink your head to fit a social occasion"

Local poet Dave Borthwick is working with Hugh Bryden and inviting in excess of 300 poets to contribute verse in their own fair haund - these will be displayed in windows around the town in a nod to the facsimile windows being installed in the poets bedroom at The Globe (copies of the ones inscribed by Rabbie and later sold when the bar fell on hard times).The enterprise is called 'Windows on Burns Night' and is organised through The Stove (found in the 'Collaborations section of the programme......admittedly easily missed as BBS forgot to include the web address with details of the project....ho hum)

Aye, all the good. Still seems a bit odd that the literature section in that programme celebrating Scotland's poet and bursting with goodies is.....non existent. However that's probably due to poets no getting off their arse and organising something for themselves.